Gym Shorts:

Who Wears Short-Shorts?

Why in hell did he have to take gym?!

Ryoma glared at his new school schedule as if it were the cause of world hunger.

Today was schedule pick up day for incoming and returning classes. He had gone to the incoming freshmen room and asked the short and stout woman sitting at the desk for his schedule. She handed it to him along with a packet that contained his locker info, his new I.D. and a map of the school. He pulled out his schedule, curiously looking it over, wondering if he had any of the teachers that his upper classmen friends from Seigaku had mentioned. His schedule looked pretty decent, except for a cooking class that Momo had warned him strictly against; otherwise his first seven periods looked manageable. But then he saw the bold words scheduled under the time slot for eighth period.

Physical Education/Health 1

He was a varsity player on the tennis team, why should he be put through this kind of humiliation?

As he was sulking over this annoying turn of events, his upperclassmen friends from Seigaku spotted him and trotted over to greet him.

"Nya, Ochibi-Chan; nice to finally see you in high school! We haven't been in the same school for two years!" Eiji crowed and hopped around in his excitement.

"How do your classes look? You get Mrs. Mihama for cooking?" Ryoma gave a short irritable nod, before handing over his schedule for his sempai's to examine.

They each took turns congratulating him and consoling him for the various teachers he had, that they had either liked or disliked. Then Eiji had mentioned the one class he really did not want to talk about.

"Nya, hey you have Mikami eighth period? He's pretty cool as long as you do warm-ups. If you don't than he gets tired of you pretty fast. So you should be fine, Ochibi-Chan." He said cheerfully.

"Why the hell do I have to take gym anyways? You guys don't have to…" he whined grumpily.

"Well, you won't have to next year. As long as you stay a regular on the team, that is." Momo said with a wink. "You better watch out, we've all been getting better and better. I don't know if you can beat me this year Echizen." He ended cockily.

Ryoma ignored him. "What if I say that it's conflicting with my practices, and with tennis matches? It is during last period." Ryoma said, quickly developing a strategy.

They both started laughing. "Nya, the captain and Mr. Mikami are good buddies, you know, he'll probably talk the captain into scheduling you're games later or something. Face it Ochibi; you're stuck." Eiji managed through his laughter.

"Why do you not want to take gym so much anyways?" Momo asked smartly. "You'd be the best in the class."

"Exactly, then the teachers expect me to work harder. Or the other jerks in my gym class get mad at me because thy have to run extra laps just so the gym teacher could try to make me work harder." He said with a passion that surprised the two sempais.

"Hoi, Hoi; Mikami's cool, nya." Eiji said comfortingly. "He won't do that."

"I don't know; Mikami's a hard ass when it comes to warm-ups. If you're not sweating, he's not happy."

Eiji disagreed and the two upperclassmen continued to argue for a few minutes. Ryoma stomped off to the small book store in the cafeteria of the school to purchase the unpleasantly necessary gym clothes. There was a short line which he walked to the end of with a very annoyed look on his face. There were two girls in front of him chatting animatedly. Though at the moment, he was in too black of a mood to notice.

"What do you think Mr. Mikami is like?" The first quiet, feminine voice asked.

"He's probably some pervert. What other kind of guy becomes a high school gym teacher?" A loud voice answered. This one was almost a complete opposite of the first calm and reserved voice.

"Tomo-Chan…" the first voice scolded quietly.

It was then that Ryoma seemed to wake himself up and realize who the two girls were standing in front of him.

"Hey, Ryuzaki!" He said cheerfully and clapped a hand on her shoulder. She jumped about a foot in the air and yelped as he had expected. He hadn't seen much of them at Seigaku, aside form tennis matches, which Sakuno attended religiously. Both of them had certainly grown. Sakuno hadn't gotten much taller, unlike himself, but she now had soft curves adorning her figure whereas his muscles had toned and tightened with his growth spurt giving him a harder outline. Tomoka had grown also, but she was taller and slightly lankier than Sakuno.

"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno Ryuzaki, the said victim gasped his name in shock and placed a hand over her now pounding heart. "Why would you do that?" she gave him a disapproving look.

Why was that so much fun? He couldn't help but smirk and shrug his shoulders innocently in return.

"Ah, Ryoma-sama how was your summer?" Tomoka Osakada cheerfully greeted.

"Fine." He said coolly. Nothing really happened, he went to America for a little while, won a few tournaments and before he knew it, it was time for school again.

"You look tan; were you on the beach?" She said with a dreamy eyed look on her face as she asked.

"Not much," he said carefully, suddenly remembering that he was dealing with the psycho-cheerleader. "How was your summer?"

"It was great; Sakuno and I were at the beach like everyday and I got so tan." Tomoka pulled her shirt collar down below her shoulder and exposed the bare flesh and bronzed skin. "See?"

He refused to even grace her shoulder with a glance and he ignored her attempt to entice him.

Instead he turned to Sakuno. "So you have Mikami for gym? Me too; what period?" He asked, mostly trying to make his distain for Tomoka clear, but he was also kind of interested in Sakuno's classes. He didn't mind her, he enjoyed her company infinitely more than her fan-girl friend.

"Um, I-I have him-" She started, but was then rudely cut off by their other female companion.

"Sakuno and I both have Mikami eighth period. Which is good, because then we can take a good, long, hot shower right after. Having gym last period has its advantages." Tomoka said with wink.

"Tomo-Chan!" Sakuno gasped, bright red in her mortification.

It was very well known knee-jerk reaction that if one was to mention the words 'shower' and anyone's name, you immediately think of them in the shower. So Ryoma shouldn't be blamed for the dirty road that his mind started to travel down. Besides, Ryoma had been wondering for awhile now, how much of Sakuno turned red whenever she blushed. Her neck and ears would always turn the rosy color, but did it go any further?

"What?" Questioned she that was responsible for Ryoma's inappropriate ponderings. Said female was currently pretending to be the model of innocence.

"You shouldn't speak of such things in front of Ryoma-kun." Sakuno said in harsh whisper while leaning in to her friend's ear to achieve some form of privacy.

If she thought that he couldn't hear her, she was sadly mistaken. But he cleaned up his thoughts to save her anymore embarrassment. Obviously he wasn't helping Sakuno feel very comfortable by just standing there and staring at her like an idiot. He didn't see why he was having those types of thoughts anyways; he was not like his oyaji! Stupid hormones.

"Why not; you don't think Ryoma would possibly be thinking inappropriate things, do you?" Tomoka said sneakily, purposely being loud and turning to give him a side glance.

Ryoma could have said quite a few things to shut her up and shut her down, but he decided to take the high road.

"Oh really; you trust that locker room? I hear they found some fungus all around it last year. I wouldn't shower in there…" he said coolly instead. He was trying to suppress a smirk as Tomoka's smile disappeared off her face and was replaced by an appalled gawk.

"Seriously?!" She cried, horrified.

Sakuno looked skeptical for a second before her expression melted into a shy smile and she giggled. "Sure, Ryoma-kun; I believe you."

Ryoma couldn't help but grin in response. He was about to say something else when the sweaty old hag running the bookstore yelled at them.

"Oi, you guys gonna buy something, if not get out of line." She snapped irritably.

Sakuno immediately apologized. "Sorry, sorry; can we buy our gym clothes? Here's the money…" She quickly pulled out some cash from the pocket on her school uniform skirt.

The prickly woman took out some 'regulation' blue shorts and plain white t-shirts for them as they handed her their money.

"Here you go, don't lose them." She snapped before waving the next customer in line forward.

Ryoma immediately inspected his own pair closely. They were just like his warm-ups for tennis so he instantly didn't mind the ensemble; it didn't even cross his mind that his female companion's outfits would be different until Tomoka opened her mouth.

"What the hell is this!? I am not wearing these to class! I knew the teacher was a pervert, if he wants us to wear these, there's no other explanation!" She ranted angrily.

"They are a little short…" Sakuno said unsurely. She was holding her shorts over the general area they would be when she wore them; she didn't like what she saw.

Ryoma inspected them as well, by his calculations they would barely reach mid-thigh.

"This is an outrage; I refuse to wear these!" Tomoka continued to rant. Ryoma thought it was slightly ironic, she was just talking about being in a swimsuit and pulling down her shirt to show him her shoulders, but when it came to shorts, the girl threw a fit.

Ryoma kept his mouth shut, trying not to draw attention to the fact that his shorts went past his knees. No need to fuel the anger anymore. Unfortunately for him, Tomoka spotted it anyways.

"What the hell is that?! Your uniform is different!" She shouted accusingly, while pointing to his uniform.

Whoops. "The uniforms are different for guys, I guess." He said carefully, half worried she would try to make him wear her pair of shorts.

"I won't stand for this!" Tomoka roared with rage and stomped off.

Ryoma stared after her, annoyed that he would have to deal with her dislike of gym shorts during his own gym period.

He turned at the sound of a calm voice gently calling to him. "D-don't worry about her, Ryoma-kun. She acted the same way when she found out our uniforms were skirts the first year of middle school." Sakuno said with a laugh.

"Are you sure?" He clarified. "Because if she ends up taking out her anger on me tomorrow then I'm going to hold you responsible." She giggled in response.

"No, you'll be fine." She said with a heart warming smile. "The only people who have to worry are the people in gym eighth period with us."

"Well then I'm in trouble aren't I?" He said with a smirk.

"What?" She said, dumbfounded with surprise.

--

Ryoma sighed laboriously and dragged himself to his last period of the day. Going back to school was always hard, but this year was the first time since junior high that he was together with all of his friends from the Seigaku tennis team—he had forgotten how exhausting they could be. With Eiji popping up everywhere, Momo shoving him into lockers and yelling 'freshmen' at him, and Inui continually reappearing and asking for updated data on his personal life, it was no wonder that he was ready to go home and sleep.

He went into the locker room with his backpack filled with all of his homework from the rest of the day. He couldn't believe that he already had homework on the first day, these teachers were hard asses! The tennis season hadn't started yet, so that was one less thing he had to worry about carrying, but he still was pretty weighted down.

He threw his bag into his assigned gym locker and then started pulling off his clothes and changing into his assigned uniform.

He had his shirt off and was pulling his new P.E. shirt on when he felt someone watching him. He turned and saw a few of the other guys in his class checking out his muscles. "Can I help you?" He said coldly and gave them a pointed look, most of them looked away.

Only one was brave enough to actually confront him. "Hey what team are you on?" He asked cautiously.

"Tennis." He answered shortly, trying to make it clear that, now was not the best time to talk to him. Any other time, when he was fully dressed would have been better.

"Oh good; I didn't think I would have been able to compete with you if you were on the soccer team. You're pretty ripped." He observed, while eyeing Ryoma's biceps and his quadriceps and comparing them to his own. He looked a little scrawny but he was about the same height as Ryoma. He looked like he could be fast, but had noodle-ish arms so he doubted that the kid had ever played tennis. He had shoulder length dyed blonde hair, which was tied back in a pony-tail at the base of his neck.

"What's your name, by the way?" He asked awkwardly.

"Ryoma Echizen." Ryoma had pulled on his shorts and was now leaning his tennis shoes on a bench and tying them, he merely nodded his head along with what the kid was saying, barely listening.

"What school are you from?" The high school that Ryoma was now attending was fairly large, so multiple middle school classes merged into it.

"Seigaku." He said and then walked out of the locker room and into the gymnasium. His new friend followed behind eagerly chatting away.

They walked into to the large gymnasium there was a very high ceiling with rafters, multiple basket ball nets hung from the rafters, there was about three courts next to each other and room for much more. There was also a track that encircled the entire gymnasium. Another thing about the gym was that it had large net-curtains that came down and could separate the three basket ball courts. They were currently up and out of the way. He cast a glance around the room and observed that there were a few other gym periods going on at this time as well. Two of them looked to be senior gym glass electives and the other was a freshman gym class just like there's. All of the four teachers were standing together and discussing things. One of the teachers was a rough-looking woman, but the other three were all very fit men. There was one very tall burly man that looked as if he had just broken out of prison. He hoped that wasn't their teacher.

"Oh really, I got a friend from Seigaku, his name's Horio Satoshi, you know him?" His tag along asked cheerfully. Ryoma couldn't help but think that this made sense, Horio was going to a different high school, so now he had to deal with a 'new Horio.' What was this guy's name, anyways?

"My name's Toya Yasaka, by the way." It was like the kid was reading his mind. "I play soccer; I have for a good six years now." He said obviously trying to impress Ryoma.

Ryoma couldn't help but roll his eyes at the kid.

"Hey check out the cuties in the pigtails." Toya whispered conspiratorially to him. That got his attention. He quickly turned his head and saw Sakuno and Tomoka walking out of the girl's locker room. Sakuno, with her set of braided pigtails as usual, was bright red and pulling her shirt down over her shorts, very embarrassed by their length. Tomoka, with her high, twin pigtails was slightly pink as well, but she just looked pissed instead of embarrassed.

He decided that he didn't like Toya very much at the moment and strolled over to the girls calmly.

"Hey." He said to them while secretly turning and giving a pointed look at Toya to show him that it was not his place to be hitting on these two. He didn't like the idea of it for some unknown reason.

"Hello Ryoma-kun." Sakuno said nervously refusing to look at him. Her death grip on her shirt never once slackened.

He didn't see what she was embarrassed about; she looked good. She had a very attractive figure. Though it hadn't been very easy to tell when he saw her yesterday in her normal street clothes, she really had grown some over the summer. These were changes that pleased and confused him all at once.

"Hello class." A loud voice suddenly boomed across the large gym and echoed off the high ceiling. Ryoma looked and sure enough it was the large prison-escapee that was there apparent gym teacher. Now that he stood proudly before all of the students, Ryoma got a better look at him. He looked past to six and half feet tall; he towered over all of them. His hair was cropped very short and he had a scraggly beard. He was built like a bear; his neck was as thick around as Ryoma's thigh. His shoulders, which were squared at the moment, were huge and connected arms which were as long and bulky as a body builder's. He was the kind of guy one was immediately intimidated by.

He noticed that Sakuno stepped a little closer to him. He didn't mind, for whatever reason, he liked the idea that she wanted him to protect her.

"I am your teacher Mr. Mikami and this is P.E. 1. Now I don't know what kind of gym classes you've had before, but I guarantee you that we don't joke around here. You will need to work if you want to pass this class." He recited in a serious tone.

Ryoma mentally groaned, great just what he was afraid of. This guy was going to hate him.

"Now, this is where we'll meet everyday unless I tell you other wise. You will be required to wear these uniforms to class everyday." There was a groan of contempt after hearing those words. The teacher chuckled. "I recommend that you take them home to wash them on weekends because otherwise things start smelling a little funky in here."

He paused and waited for the chatter to die down. "This week will be easy though, we'll just be testing you're fitness level, to see what I should expect out of you freshmen."

"Now I will be pairing you up with a fitness partner, if you don't know them, than get cozy with each other and make a new buddy; because you two are stuck together for the rest of the semester."

"Aw hell." Ryoma muttered angrily, with his luck he'd get stuck with Toya or worse, Tomo.

He started pairing names together and asking them to stand next to each other and start stretches.

"Osakada and ….Yasaka." Ryoma sighed in relief. Thank the gods; he didn't have to worry about those two anymore. He saw Toya's grin widen as he strolled casually over to Tomoka and extended his hand for her to shake in greeting. Tomoka brushed him off coldly and instead turned and stood next to Sakuno.

Ryoma snickered at the confused look on Toya's face. Poor idiot didn't know what he was in for.

"Echizen and…" Ryoma waited with a wince. "Ryuzaki." His eyes widened he turned to see Sakuno bright red and looking slightly worried.

What was this stupid fuzzy feeling in his gut? He walked up to Sakuno and nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"Uhm…" she uhm-ed nervously, her grip on the brim of her shirt had not loosened, if anything it had tightened. "Ryoma-kun, if you want to be with someone more athletic I could ask the teacher if we could switch if you want…?" She said her voice thick with worry.

Is that what she was fretting over? He was slightly hurt that she thought that he wanted to get rid of her.

"Trying to get rid of me, huh?" He said with a laugh. Of course she freaked out anyways.

"No, I didn't mean it like that! I just thought you would want a partner who was more you're speed! I think you're a great partner!" She blurted quickly with out thinking. She then turned bright red.

Ryoma felt himself turn slightly pink. He turned away so she wouldn't see it.

"All right class, sit-ups. Thirty of them, have you're partner hold your feet and count."

"…Do you want to go first…?" Sakuno asked shyly. In response he got down on the floor and put his hands behind his head. He felt her small hands close around his ankles and press down on his shoes. He shook his head to try and erase to the red that was there.

"Just sit on my feet; no offence but I don't think you can hold my feet." He said, refusing to look at her and instead staring at the ceiling with an intense scrutiny.

"Okay…" She mumbled quietly. He felt the pressure on his feet and felt the material from her clothes brushing against his shins and knees. He slammed his eyes shut and flew through his sit-ups. He heard Sakuno's hushed voice counting as he moved up and down. When she got to thirty, he stopped, she released him and he sat up, puffing quietly.

"That was fast Ryoma-kun." She observed, while looking at him in wonder.

"Tezuka used to make us do a hundred." He answered, embarrassed by her attention.

They switched and she lay on her back with her knees bent. "I'm not as fast as you…" She said, embarrassed. He had to avert his eyes; he couldn't trust himself to look down at her like that. It made him feel too weird, warm-ups were something he knew, and Sakuno was making it feel strange, he wasn't sure if he liked this or not.

"No problem, we're already ahead of the rest of the class." This was true, Ryoma had finished fast while the rest of the class was barely halfway through their first set. He placed his own hands over her feet and wrapped his hands around her ankles to help anchor her.

Then she started and like Ryoma she closed her eyes and started off at a good, strong pace. Ryoma watched as she rose up and down getting half way through before she started to slow down slightly. Ryoma counted as she rose and descended back to the ground. After her last one she collapsed on the ground, panting; her face flushed with exertion.

He smirked and congratulated her. "Nice job."

She gave him a small smile before replying. "I'm a little out of shape; I didn't do much over the summer."

He chuckled and stood up. He stuck out his hand to Sakuno; she took it and turned a light pink. He then proceeded to hoist her up. She gasped as she was flung to her feet and stumbled. His arm shot out to steady her.

"God, you're light." He said looking at her incredulously.

She blushed and then gave him a small glare. "I-I'm normal, I'm just not as tall as you and Tomo-Chan, and just because you two are freakishly tall, don't think I'm the weird one."

He looked at her for a second before he burst out laughing. "Apparently I've touched a nerve." He said through his laughter. She looked adorable when she was mad.

She blushed before elaborating. "I-I've been laughed at all day because everyone has gotten taller over the summer but me."

He laughed again, before giving her one of his rare smiles. "They're just jealous." His smile turned into a smirk. "They wish they would get offered the kid's menu's at restaurants too." He burst into laughter again and Sakuno shoved him but then she smiled and started giggling too.

After Tomo and Toya had finished their sit-ups they walked over to Sakuno and him. Tomoka and Sakuno started talking in an animated fashion.

Toya stood next to him like it was his place. Great, Ryoma thought, he was already a part of their little group. Toya suddenly leaned in toward him and whispered conspiratorially again.

"Tomo-Chan has nice legs…and I love their uniforms. Don't you?" He said with a smirk. Ryoma rolled his eyes, but suddenly had to restrain himself from checking out Sakuno's legs.

The rest of the class finished up their sit-ups and then the teacher gave the next order. "All right; you guys starting to feel the burn? Now bend down and touch your toes."

They all complied. Ryoma bent down and touched his toes. Sakuno happened to stand in front of him while doing the same. If he were to glance up for just a second….

Toya, who was lined up next to Ryoma, nudged him and jerked his head toward where Sakuno and Tomoka were bent over.

One little peek wouldn't kill anyone.

He looked and saw an angle of Sakuno that he doubted he ever saw other than in his dreams, not that he would ever admit that.

Man, those shorts really are short.

--

"Ryoma Echizen, how on earth did you fall while touching your own toes?" The school nurse questioned skeptically.

"I lost my balance and fell on my face. Laugh it up; I don't care." He snapped irritably.

Because that's exactly what happened; how else would he have gotten a nosebleed while touching his toes?

…

Stupid gym class.

--

A/n: Hee hee I'm back with the funny stuff! How'd you like it? A bloody-nose indicates horniness if you didn't get the end.

Well Iposted this one in a hurryb/c Imma be going out of town for the holidays so if you notice any errors, it would be nice if you informed me of them so i can fix them.

I'm thinking of making this a collection of short-stories. All related, yet un-related, if you know what I mean. I'll update sporadically, but right now I'm really concentrating on my story 'Love is just a word' that one's Ryo/Saku too, only it's slightly more serious. Read it! I hope you'll like it, that one I will update as often as I can.

Oh and if you were wondering about Toya, I wanted a character in there that didn't know the norms of their little group…and plus I was sick of Horio. It is also nice to have a character that isn't obsessed with tennis once in a while huh?

There prolly will be more, but that's all for now.

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis/Tennis no Oujisama.